Keeping research fresh

Research in Enki is durable, but it isn't static. Companies hire, fire, raise, ship, get acquired, and change strategy. The research you ran six weeks ago is a snapshot, and a snapshot ages. This guide is for AEs who want a sensible rhythm for re-running research without burning their monthly quota.

Signs research has gone stale

The most reliable signals are events, not calendar dates. Refresh an account when any of the following has happened since the last research run:

A funding round, acquisition, IPO, or layoff.
A leadership change in a role that matters to your deal (CEO, CFO, CRO, the VP who owns your buyer's function).
A product launch, repositioning, or earnings release that changes the strategy you'd reference.
A competitor announcement that puts them in the buyer's evaluation set.
Your champion left, changed role, or stopped responding.

If none of those have happened and the briefing is recent, you probably don't need a refresh. Read what you already have first.

As a calendar-based fallback for accounts you're actively working, a quarterly refresh on top-priority (Tier 1) accounts is usually enough, and a one-touch refresh before a major meeting on any account is good practice when the briefing is more than a couple of months old.

Refreshing an account

The Account Research feature article in the Features section is the canonical reference for what each tier produces; this section covers the refresh mechanics. Open the account, go to the Research tab, and trigger a new research run from the tier selector. You'll choose between Deep Research (long, comprehensive, best for top-priority accounts) and Standard research (faster, lighter-touch, good for everything else).

The run takes anywhere from about 60 to 90 seconds (Standard) to 15 to 30 minutes (Deep). You can leave the page; when you come back, the loader picks up where it left off and shows progress. You don't lose your place on refresh.

When the refresh completes, Enki merges the new findings into the existing briefing. Existing sections you've been referencing don't disappear; they get updated. Any new evidence shows up in the source list, and any Foresights generated against the account will pick up the fresher inputs next time they regenerate.

Refreshing a contact

Contact research follows the same pattern. Open the contact, choose the tier in the contact research tier dialog, and start the run. Standard contact research takes about 60 to 90 seconds; Deep contact research takes longer (about 15 to 20 minutes) and is reserved for your highest-priority targets where the depth is worth the wait.

Most contact refreshes should be Standard. Deep contact research is a quota line item; don't spend it on contacts you're not actively trying to reach.

The Contact research tiers article in Best Practices covers when each tier is the right call.

A cost-aware refresh rhythm

Your monthly plan includes separate quota lines for Deep Research on accounts, Standard research on accounts, Deep Research on contacts, and Standard contact enrichments. They do not share buckets — Standard account research has its own monthly allowance, distinct from Deep. Treat the Deep budgets as scarce and the Standard budgets as the workhorses.

A simple rule of thumb that holds up across most territories:

Deep account research: reserve for top-priority (Tier 1) accounts and trigger only on an event (funding, leadership change, new role in your deal) or before a high-stakes meeting. Consumes its own monthly quota line.
Standard account research: use for everything else, including periodic mid-tier refreshes. Consumes a separate Standard account quota line.
Deep contact research: reserve for the handful of people you most need to engage well — economic buyers, champions you're trying to mobilize, replacement champions when your original one leaves.
Standard contact research: use freely for anyone new entering a deal. Consumes the Standard contact quota line, which is also separate.

Don't refresh your entire territory every week. The marginal new information is almost never worth the quota, and you'll exhaust the budget you need for the one account that actually matters this month.

Market intelligence and territory news run on their own daily cadence in the background, so you don't need to refresh those by hand — they're already current when you open them.

What to expect from a refresh

A refresh is not a guaranteed rewrite. If nothing has materially changed since the last run, the briefing may look very similar — that itself is information. If something has changed, you'll see it in the strategy and people sections most often, since those are the ones most sensitive to leadership and market shifts.

If a refresh produces a briefing that contradicts what you knew first-hand from a meeting, trust the meeting and note the discrepancy in your CRM. The research is a starting point, not the source of truth.

If you've been working an account hard, your tier assignment may also drift. The Features section on Territory + Scoring describes the rubric and how to think about tier changes between runs.

A note for sales leaders

Refresh discipline is a leading indicator of deal hygiene. Reps who refresh on events and not on calendars tend to ride pipeline more deliberately. Reps who never refresh, or who refresh everything every week, are usually working off out-of-date context — that shows up as surprises in deal reviews.